Embodiments of the present inventive concept relate to a data storage device and a data storage system including the same, and more particularly to a data storage device capable of reducing the number of merge operations and a data storage system including the same.
In a data storage device using a flash memory, a flash translation layer (FTL) is used to manage a flash memory efficiently. The FTL may perform an address mapping operation converting a logical address LA, which is input from outside, e.g., from a file system like a host, to a physical address (PA). Data, which is input with the logical address, may then be stored in a flash memory according to a result of the address mapping operation.
As representative methods of the address mapping operation of the FTL, there are a page mapping method, a block mapping method and a hybrid mapping method. The hybrid mapping method is for countering weak points of the page mapping method and the block mapping method.
Generally, a flash memory may include a plurality of memory blocks, and the plurality of memory blocks may include a plurality of pages, respectively. The hybrid mapping method of the FTL uses the block mapping method for a data block and uses the page mapping method for a log block. Here, an initial data input from outside may be stored in the data block and an update data of the initial data stored in the data block may be stored in the log block. However, in the above-mentioned hybrid mapping method, owing to the frequency or number of occurrences of a merge operation, which merge operation is performed when the log block of the flash memory is exhausted, a performance deterioration phenomenon of the flash memory occurs and efficiency among a plurality of memory blocks of the flash memory declines, accordingly.